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Bill Werber, sparkplug third baseman of the Cincinnati Reds clubs that won National League pennants in 1939 and 1940,1 had decided to retire from baseball after the success of the 1940 season.2 A broken toe on his right foot, a consequence of angrily kicking a fortified dugout water bucket in 1934, was continuing to cause pain […]

When it opened in 1928, Montreal’s De Lorimier Stadium was considered the preeminent ballpark of the minor leagues. Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis said it was even better than some big-league facilities.1 The luxurious ballpark was also heavily mortgaged, which was a relatively minor concern initially. Everything changed when the stock market crashed in October 1929. […]

Montreal Expos manager Tom Runnells raised more than a few eyebrows during spring training in 1992 when he proclaimed his squad was “the team to beat” in the National League East.1 Although they had a promising group of young ballplayers, Montreal had finished dead last in the division in 1991 and a worst-to-first turnaround defied […]

The once-struggling Cincinnati Reds were rested and ready1 on Friday, August 12, 1966, when they hosted the first-place Pittsburgh Pirates for the start of a three-game series at Crosley Field. The Reds had won six of their last seven games against the Pirates, but trailed eight games to seven in the season’s rivalry. As Pittsburgh […]

The Wingfoot Air Express lands at Grant Park in Chicago during its maiden voyage on July 21, 1919. (Photo: Chicagology.com)   It’s usually a thrill to see a Goodyear blimp flying over a sporting event. For nearly 100 years, the iconic silver airship has been observed flying over the World Series, the Super Bowl, the […]

The headline writer for the front page of a daily newspaper is challenged to provide the reader with glimpses of tragedy and joy, victory and defeat, worry and elation, all appropriately befitting the day’s news. When Pittsburgh awoke on the morning of July 26, 1956, the headline spread across the front page of the Pittsburgh […]

The Boston Post summarized the game succinctly: “The base ball match here to-day between the Boston and Athletic clubs resulted in a drawn game of 10 to 10. A tenth inning was commenced, the Bostons having made two runs, and the Athletics having two men out and two on bases, when the game was suspended […]

Two early-season games at Braves Field on May 23, 1948, were quickly forgotten amid far more exciting contests from that championship season, but the events that unfolded around the Sunday doubleheader were significant for reasons that go far beyond baseball.1 The story starts a few miles from the ballpark. In the basement of what is […]

No-hitters are often remembered for the dramatic defensive plays that preserved them. The later it comes in the game, the more dramatic the play is; sometimes it’s even the 27th out.1 Other times it’s the very first out, when no one could imagine what is at stake. Rudy Law of the Chicago White Sox led […]

It wasn’t easy being an independent team in 1925. These teams barnstormed from city to city, relying on their manager to arrange each month’s schedule,1 hoping they’d make enough money to pay the bills. If you were a Black team operating outside of the Negro National League, which was now in its sixth season, or […]

In April 1977 a brand-new baseball team called the Blue Jays took the field for the first time, kindling joy in the hearts of fans and bringing the pro game back to a baseball-starved city. And then, two months later, it happened all over again. The expansion Toronto Blue Jays played their first season in […]

In late December 1959, it was widely published that Washington Senators owner Calvin Griffith “had looked one million dollars in the eye and expressed no interest.” It was an offer not for his Washington franchise but for just two of his ballplayers, first baseman Harmon Killebrew and pitcher Camilo Pascual. One of those published reports […]

“Yesterday the hazardous feat of playing a match of base ball upon skates was accomplished by the Atlantic and Charter Oak Base Ball Clubs. What next?”— Brooklyn Daily Eagle, February 5, 1861   “Play was lively and exciting,” reported the New York Times, “not as much difficulty being experienced from the use of skates by […]

Hoping to build on the Boston Red Sox’ win over the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in Game One of the 2007 American League Division Series, 27-year-old Red Sox starter Daisuke Matsuzaka threw 31 pitches in the top of the first inning of Game Two. With the first six, he struck out leadoff batter Chone […]

As the Kansas City Royals overcame the Oakland A’s for their first-ever American League West Division title in 1976, Royals teammates George Brett and Hal McRae and Minnesota Twins hitting star Rod Carew battled for the AL’s batting crown. The three-way race came down to the regular-season finale between Kansas City and Minnesota on October […]

Rolland Edison “Tex” Hoyle was the third youngest of nine brothers in a baseball-playing family. He was born in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, on July 17, 1921, to Alexander S. Hoyle Sr. and Alice (Hazen) Hoyle. His father was of English and Welsh descent and his mother German. The elder Hoyle was a baseball fan. He played […]

In just three big-league seasons, right-handed pitcher Rankin Johnson pitched for five big-league teams: the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Chi-Feds, Chicago Whales, Baltimore Terrapins, and the St. Louis Cardinals. Experienced historians will recognize three of Johnson’s teams as Federal League teams, and thus can pin down the era as primarily 1914 and 1915. He came […]

James Henry “Jimmy” Bannon was born on May 5, 1871, in Amesbury, Massachusetts. He grew up in Saugus, Massachusetts, where he played ball with his brothers Tom, George, and William. Tom Bannon also became a professional ballplayer and played two seasons with the New York Giants (1895, 1896). George and William never made it out […]

A Red Sox player sold for one dollar. Jack Hoey played outfield for Boston from 1906 through 1908. After the 1908 season, Hoey tried to continue as a ballplayer in Connecticut and became the center of a controversy when he was sold by the president of the Waterbury club for $1 to the New Britain […]

With the clarity of hindsight it seems appropriate that an action photograph of Robert Gaston by noted African-American photographer Charles “Teenie” Harris shows what looks like Gaston launching a home run. As the backup to Josh Gibson and teammate of Buck Leonard, Gaston certainly saw his share of home runs. Gibson abandoned the Homestead Grays […]

It took Oscar Judd until he was 33 years old to make the big leagues. When he did, being that age enabled him to stay in the game throughout the Second World War. His talent, though in decline, enabled him to play three more years in the postwar period.   Judd was Canadian, born on […]

Former Site of Bugle Field at Federal Street and N. Highland Avenue, January 2020. (Courtesy of David B. Stinson.)   Baltimore in the early part of the twentieth century “languished in ballpark poverty.”1 The city, once home to one of the finest squads in the professional game, had hosted only minor-league teams since 1902, and […]

Editor’s note: This article was first published in “Association for Psychological Science,” Vol. 25, No. 4, in April 2012 and is reprinted at SABR.org with permission of the authors.   Home plate was round, something like a dinner plate, when baseball was born in the 19th century, but it was difficult to call balls and […]

This essay is adapted from an article published in the September 2013 issue of “The Inside Game,” the newsletter of the Deadball Era Committee.   Of the more than 300 figures enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame, perhaps the most enigmatic is George Davis. Although occasionally embroiled in controversy during his heyday in […]